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Graduate Students Pursue Fieldwork, Other Scholarly Fall 2011/Volume 22, Number 1 newS And eventS Program of African Studies NorthwesterN UNiversity Building on an active year by Kate Dargis As PAS plans another year of activities to support the research You may request a copy of Northwestern’s Africanist faculty and students, we feel it is of PAS’s annual report by important to reflect on 2010–11’s full record of successes— e-mailing african-studies programming and conferences, visiting scholars, new working @northwestern.edu, or read it groups and partnerships, and the addition of many working papers online at www.northwestern and special publications. .edu/african-studies. we Our 2010–11 Annual Report documents the growth of our adjunct major in African studies, the progress of our working hope you take time to learn groups, the establishment of new groups for the upcoming year, about PAS’s accomplishments the activities of the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in and the initiatives on which Africa (ISITA), the publication of the study results of the Research we are building. Please share Alliance to Combat HIV/AIDS in Africa (REACH), our the report with colleagues partnerships both inside and outside the University, and the quality and students. of event programming produced for our community. Highlights of 2010–11 included the visit and lecture by alumna Johnnetta Cole, director of the Smithsonian Institute’s cosponsored “After Tahrir: Egypt’s Ongoing Social Transformation,” Museum of African Art. We also welcomed quite a few writers, a daylong workshop organized by graduate student Rahma Baalavar including Tracy Kidder, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Doreen Baingana, that brought together experts and key witnesses to the events. The Benjamin Kwakye, Bayo Ojikutu, and James Kilgore. The Public “Teaching Africa” symposium, organized by undergraduate student Health in Africa lecture series was also a huge success, bringing Lydia Hsu, focused on high school and undergraduate education. together the large constituency of Northwestern interested in “Bridging Publishing Markets in African Studies: An International the future of public health. Speakers included Robert Bailey Workshop” was held in conjunction with NU Press and funded by a (epidemiology, Illinois at Chicago), Carolyn Baer (Center grant from the Mellon Foundation. Another conference celebrated for Global Health, Feinberg the life and work of scholar Boubacar Boris Diop, with readings School of Medicine), Kathryn and paper presentations. The Oral History and Performance as Inside Mathers (anthropology, Duke), Social Action for Africana Studies (OPASA) two-day workshop Jean Hunleth (anthropology, brought together oral historians from Maine and Montreal to share ISITA news 2 Northwestern), Claire Wendland their work with diaspora communities and performance as a form New, visiting, and (anthropology, Wisconsin), of activism. returning scholars 4 Joseph Okeibunor (sociology/ The upcoming year looks to be just as exciting. We are pleased anthropology, Nigeria; Fulbright that faculty members Rachel Riedl (political science) and Ivy Working groups update 5 Scholar, Harvard), and Paula Wilson (English) have joined the PAS executive committee. The New papers by Gremley (Mwangaza Inc.). seminar room at PAS has been newly repainted and upgraded, and Ivor Wilks, PAS also hosted a number of art displays are being built for African art donated to PAS. Warren d’Azevedo 6 conferences relating to important We look forward to seeing new faces and hearing about the developments and ongoing issues new research coming out of our community. This issue of PAS News In memoriam: Continued on page 7 on the continent. In the wake highlights some of what you can expect in fall 2011. Justine Cordwell 8 of the revolution in Egypt, we ISItA news ISItA seminar draws together Chicago-area Islam and Africa specialists About once a quarter, a group of professors, students, and A meeting last spring featured a dissertation chapter by others who share interests in Islam and Africa gather in the ISITA visiting scholar Muhammad al-Munir Gibrill, a PhD PAS conference room for lively discussion of a colleague’s pre- student in Arabic language at Indiana University. Gibrill’s circulated paper. Several people from Northwestern have been paper was a close reading of a poem by Alhaj Umar Karchi regular participants in these meetings of the Chicago-Area (1858–1934), a Muslim scholar from the region of present-day Islam and Africa Seminar, established by the Institute for the Nigeria and Ghana, that describes the moment of encounter Study of Islamic Thought in Africa in 2006. between Africans and Europeans and details the damage The works discussed might range from a first-year gradu- inflicted by colonial intervention. ate student’s paper to a dissertation chapter to a draft of a jour- “Gibrill’s approach—grounding his reading and analysis nal article. Topics have included an analysis of an Arabic of the poem in postcolonial theory and literary discourse— treatise on slavery in West Africa, a paper about archaeological revealed important methodological and empirical gaps in our evidence of exchange between West Africa and Egypt, and a knowledge of African history,” said Montana, who attended book prospectus on the history of Islam in Africa. the seminar. “Using poems composed in ajami and Arabic, Northwestern participants have included faculty members Gibrill’s paper reconstructed histories of African responses to Muhammad Sani Umar (religion and ISITA), Robert Launay European colonialism through the lens of Umar Karchi.” (anthropology), Rudolph Ware (now Michigan), and Ruediger Seesemann (now Bayreuth) and affiliates Charles Stewart “the seminar and ISItA events in general (ISITA) and Kenneth Vaux (Garrett Evangelical). Graduate provide a cornerstone for collaborative students also participate actively. Coming from other area universities are Ralph Austen and research with like-minded specialists and Choukri Heddouchi (Chicago), Kim Searcy (Loyola), Babacar an interdisciplinary group of scholars working Mbengue (DePaul), Pap Aly Dramé (Domini- on various aspects of Muslim Africa.” can), and Ismael Musa —Ismael Musa Montana Montana (Northern Illi- nois). Montana (pictured [left] with Muhammad In the discussion, Gibrill stressed the importance of poetry al-Munir Gibrill) drives by sub-Saharan African authors in Arabic. “It has been under- almost four hours rated by Arabic language scholars,” he observed, “because it round-trip to attend. sometimes lacks the schemes of classical Arabic writing. Yet “The seminar is a perfect this misses the point that the poets are bringing African platform for staying in thought to the form.” He also noted that overlooking literature tune with discussions in Arabic or in African languages in Arabic script limits his- and debates central to my work and issues in the field,” he said. torical understanding of African responses to colonial rule and Visiting scholars with PAS or ISITA, including Paulo appreciation of the genres that gave expression to them. Farias (Birmingham), Knut Vikor (Bergen), Eloi Ficquet The Chicago-Area Islam and Africa Seminar is open to (EHESS, Paris), and Marta Garcia Novo (CCHS-CSIC, the public. To receive news of upcoming meetings, e-mail Madrid), have also made presentations to the seminar. ISITA assistant director Rebecca Shereikis at r-shereikis @northwestern.edu. 2 Farewell to Ruediger Seesemann PAS and ISITA fondly bid farewell to Seesemann particularly strived to Ruediger Seesemann (religion), who has create opportunities for African scholars accepted a position as professor of through ISITA. Hassan Ndzovu of Moi Islamic studies at the University of University, Kenya, who was a visiting Bayreuth, Germany. Mellon postdoctoral fellow at PAS in Since arriving at Northwestern in 2010–11, first met Seesemann in 2003 January 2005, the specialist in Islam in and views their relationship as crucial to sub-Saharan Africa has been an ener- his development as a scholar. “There are getic, collegial member of the PAS and times when Ruediger has personally ISITA communities, while excelling in gone far out of his way to assist me and teaching, advising, and his own to see that I was successful in my stud- scholarship. ies,” Ndzovu observes. “I have changed Seesemann has played a key role in and developed academically. I am not articulating an intellectual agenda for the same person I was in 2003 when I ISITA and raising new funds to support first met him. I would like Ruediger to it. In 2005 he and then-colleague know that he has contributed to that Rudolph Ware (now Michigan) devel- Ruediger Seesemann (front row, left) with change in me.” Ndzovu’s revised disser- oped “Constituting Bodies of Islamic participants in a 2007 ISItA conference on Sufi texts tation, “Religion and Politics: The Knowledge,” a successful proposal to the Politicization of Islam in Kenya,” is Ford Foundation that is now in its sec- community and include the perspectives being considered by NU Press for ond three-year funding cycle. As part of of Tijani scholars in the production of publication. this grant, Seesemann directs a research the volume,” comments ISITA assistant Seesemann’s most recent book, The project concerned with literature pro- director Rebecca Shereikis. “This not Divine Flood: Ibrahim Niasse and the duced by members of the Tijaniyya Sufi only enriches the quality of the finished Roots of a 20th-Century Sufi Revival, was order, Africa’s largest Sufi order. The work but also opens up many pathways published by Oxford University Press in result of the project will be an encyclo- for dialog between ISITA and Tijani July 2011. pedia of Tijani authors and their works, scholars and intellectuals, many of ISITA and PAS thank Seesemann to be published by Brill in the Arabic whom have contributed to the volume for his significant contributions and Literature of Africa series. and eagerly await its publication.” wish him well in his new position. Preparation of this massive volume Another focus of Seesemann’s has involved collecting data in multiple attention was mentoring. locales, collaborating with a team of “Dr.
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